(There’s a lot of really good material that already exists on other PFS Lodge sites, and Reports from the Field will showcase some of the best. Today’s re-post, courtesy of Philadelphia Venture-Lieutenant James McTeague, definitely falls into that category, and is a must-read for anyone whose first character is reaching that magic Level 5. Enjoy, and check out the Philadelphia Lodge site for more great articles! -VC Brent-)

The Game Changes at Level 5

19DEC

As your character gains levels, they will become more specialized. Your character has a couple things that they are really good at, and they will certainly try to spend most combats following that one strategy, whether it be summoning monsters, full attack power attack with a greatsword, or yelling insults at enemies to get them to attack your super high AC instead of squishy party members. The problem is, your enemies also have some things that they are very good at and sometimes their strategy trumps yours. A lot of these are things you can prepare for if you know they exist. However, if this is your first higher level character, you may not be aware of the effects and strategies at these levels. Here are some things you can expect.

Flight

You’re starting to make enough money a scenario where dropping 750 gold for a consumable item is something that is reasonable to do. If you don’t want to spend the gold, a potion of fly is also conveniently 2 prestige. Of course, if you’re an arcane caster, you either have access to fly or will be getting it shortly, and divine casters are getting air walk in their next spell level. Druids meanwhile turn into a bird and laugh at all the silly non-wild shapers down there trying to take to the air. The fact is, sometimes the terrain will be so inhospitable that flying is your best option. Or the enemies are flying and your ranged weapons aren’t doing much to them. Or your ranged weapons are doing things to them, but you need a melee person to get up in their face so the flying archers stop focusing on the squishy guys in the back. Flying becomes very important as you level up and every character should think about how they will fly as they level.

Even gorillas think about how they are going to fly…

Daylight

PFS loves darkness effects, especially deeper darkness. It’s possible that you may have come across deeper darkness already. Up until now, daylight was a hard spell to access, but now you can start preparing it. If you’re not a spellcaster, an oil of daylight is 750 gold or 2 prestige. (Of course, original flavor aasimars are laughing at us.) That being said, there are two ways of interpreting the way daylight and deeper darknessinteract. The first says that daylight cancels out deeper darkness and it is bright light in the area, the second says that daylight cancels out deeper darkness’ light reducing clause but doesn’t stop the natural lights from being shut off so it’s still dark. If you 100% want to make sure you can see no matter who your GM is, you might want to also pick up some way of getting darkvision.

Or you could do my favourite anti-darkness tactic. Obscuring Mist. You’re stopping us from being able to see? We’ll do the same to you. Even if you only get 20% concealment, that stops the sneak attack that a lot of darkness-users have.

Not only that, but alignment-based DR is starting to show up. Evil outsiders tend to have DR/good. Be careful, this doesn’t mean that you have to be good, it means that your weapon has to be good-aligned. Pretty much the only way to do this permanently is to have a holy weapon, but that is expensive. Other options include getting align weapon (good) cast, either as an oil or by asking your nearest divine caster, or getting bless weapon cast, again either as an oil or by asking your nearest paladin. Generally, if you’re picking up a consumable, you’re better off picking up bless weapon since it’s cheaper (1st level spell vs. 2nd level spell) and it has some other cool effects. That being said, a lot of low-level evil outsiders have DR/good or material, so if you’ve been keeping up with materials, you shouldn’t be too bad off.

Of course, you will occasionally run into strange DR. My favourite is the Penanggalen, which has DR/silver and slashing. It’s great because slashing silver weapons do 1 less damage by default, so nobody ever buys silver slashing weapons. Occasionally you will run into DR that you aren’t prepared for, but with proper buying, you can bypass most types of DR with a couple cheap weapons.

Rawr! Your silver mace has no power vs me!

4th Level Spells

It’s a good bet that enemy spellcasters are going to have access to 1 level of spells higher than you. Now that your wizards and clerics have access to 3rd level spells, some of your enemies are going to have access to 4th level spells. Let’s check them out to see what we need to worry about.

Black Tentacles This spell is a game changer. Grappled is a brutal condition, especially if the thing that is grappling you isn’t another person, but a spell effect that you can’t attack. This spell is why everyone, especially spellcasters, want some way of getting out of grapple. Teleportation effects off of magic items work well, although they tend to be a little expensive at this level. Grease is a great spell for defending against grapples, although you’ll have to make a concentration check if you’re grappled to cast it. (Unless you thought ahead and put it in a cracked vibrant purple prism ioun stone ahead of time.) If you managed not to get caught in the black tentacles but other party members have, liberating command is an absolutely amazing spell from Ultimate Combat you should consider, especially if you are a spontaneous caster. That being said, if you are a full BAB, high Strength character, you might just have the CMB/CMD to defend against this without needing to prepare. Oils of grease are pretty cheap though…

Confusion Spells like this make me never want to dump wisdom. The random actions may seem harmless, but the real problem comes when one of the confused people rolls “Attack nearest creature” and attacks another confused person. According to the text of confusion, both parties must now continue to attack each other until the end of the spell. There are a couple ways of getting around this. If you’re currently confused, a simple surmount affliction if you roll “Act normally” will clear it for a couple rounds. If you don’t have access to surmount affliction, throwing your weapons far away from you and running in the opposite direction tends to be a good plan. If you did make your save but somebody else didn’t, the Inner Sea World Guide continues to show the ridiculous stuff it has in it with the spell unbreakable heart. But most importantly – the best way to defend against confusion is just to not have a bad will save. Don’t skimp on your saves!

Spell Resistance

If you’re a spellcaster who casts offensive spells, you’re going to start running into spell resistance if you haven’t already. Spell resistance is really annoying, since a lot of spells allow for it and creatures tend to have a high SR. An average creature’s spell resistance is 11 + the creature’s CR, which means if you’re fighting a CR 7 creature in a scenario, they have an average SR of 18, which a 5th level caster needs a 13 on the dice to beat – a 40% chance to have your spells go off, as opposed to the 100% chance that you’ve normally been enjoying.

Demons are also known for their Spell Resistance. Seems like a good thing to know for Year of the Demon…

Fortunately, there are a number of ways of beating this. If you’re an elf, you have a +2 to beat SR baked into your racial traits already. Also, if you’ve been building up to cast one spell at a really high caster level, that really high caster level also helps you overcome SR when you cast that one spell. For those of us who are not elves or focusing on one spell, the Core Rulebook helps us out with Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. If you don’t have the feat slot to spare but don’t mind spending a bit of money, a lesser rod of piercing metamagic will help you get through 3 times a day, and dweomer essence is a 500 gp consumable that you use in a spell to give it a +5 bonus to spell resistance checks. Combine both for super SR punching power!

However, the best way of beating spell resistance is to just use spells that don’t allow for them. Conjuration specialist wizards have been rocking at this forever since most conjuration spells don’t allow for spell resistance. (Your SR won’t help you when you fall into this pit!) Also buff spells like haste and blesstend to be really good since your allies don’t tend to have spell resistance. (Unless they’re a dwarf, but that’s a special case.)

Finishing Thoughts

First of all, that was a lot of info and a lot of things to buy. Even though I advocate spending a lot of money, in reality you should be spending most of your money making sure that your main strategies work well. Prioritize your spending – you don’t need everything right away, and you also don’t have to take care of everything by yourself. Read over the article, click on the links, and learn about what you could face. Because even if you can’t protect yourself against everything on this list, knowing is half the battle. Besides, you would be surprised by what you can overcome by retreating back, resting for a moment, and re-entering the fight with a brand new battle plan.

With so many items to choose from, scattered through the various Pathfinder RPG lines, it’s quite easy for a player to miss something useful. In a book the size of Ultimate Equipment, it is a daunting task to remember every item and the benefits they confer. This article is the first in a series, introducing Pathfinder Society players to hidden treasures, both magic and mundane, that might be worth a closer look. This week we focus on items dealing with Animal Companions, Mounts and Familiars.

A common problem in Pathfinder Society play is what to do with your mount or exotic creature in certain situations. Is it appropriate to take my Large-sized tiger to a dinner party celebrating the wedding of a prominent NPC? Where can I safely keep my horse while I’m exploring a cramped dungeon? Our first entry is an enhancement for armor from Ultimate Equipment (page 120). It is suited for paladins, cavaliers, or any heavy armor wearing class that wants to protect his companion and possibly keep them close without leaving them behind or creating a tactical hindrance by having them with you in tight confines. It can also be used by those classes with a smaller companion in order to keep them safe in a dangerous environment.

Hosteling Armor (Price +7,500 gp)A suit of armor or shield with this special ability hides living animals within its iconography to keep it safe. The wearer can speak a command word to magically store an animal to which he is bonded, such as an animal companion, a familiar, or mount. The stored animal appears as a symbol emblazoned upon the armor or shield, either one that mimics the appearance of the animal or that is more symbolic and abstract.While stored, the animal is sleeping and provides the wearer no benefit (such as a familiar’s skill bonus). The size of animal that can be stored depends on the type of armor or shield. A suit of light armor, medium armor, or a light shield or heavy shield can store one animal up to the wearer’s size. A suit of heavy armor or a tower shield can store one animal up to one size category larger than the wearer. A second command word releases the stored animal from the hosteling armor or shield. A released animal immediately awakens, appears in a space adjacent to the wearer, and can take actions on the round it appears.Because the stored animal is sleeping rather than in suspended animation (or even hibernating), it ages and gets hungry at the normal rate while stored. A hosteling armor or shield automatically releases a stored animal 24 hours after it was stored inside.This armor special ability still works on bonded magical beasts that were once animals, but not outsiders, oozes, or other exotic companion creatures.

The best part of this enhancement is the cost. Since it is a straight gold piece cost rather than an enhancement bonus cost, it can be added to any armor once it has been enchanted with a +1 or more bonus enhancement with minimal Prestige cost.

Next is a wondrous magic item especially designed with spell-casters in mind, allowing them to extend the range of their Share Spells ability. This item, called a Beast-Bond Brand, is also from Ultimate Equipment (page 282):

Beast-Bond Brand [1000 gp]This sticky henna paste is used to stamp a rust-colored handprint onto the body of a familiar or animal companion, and a hoof, claw, or paw print from that creature onto its master. These brands demonstrate a bond of friendship and balance, not ownership and subservience. Applying the brand requires a full-round action each for master and companion. The brand enhances the share spells ability of druids, wizards, and other classes with animal companions or familiars, allowing these characters to cast spells with a range of personal or touch on the marked companion at a range of 30 feet, provided the character has line of effect to the creature. Each spell cast at range in this way drains one charge from the beast-bond brand for each spell level of the spell cast. A newly applied beast-bond brand has 10 charges. When all charges are consumed, the brand vanishes. For the purposes of teleportation spells and effects, the master may treat a marked companion as an object or a creature, whichever is more favorable (weight restrictions still apply).A character may have only one creature marked in this way at any time. The brand lasts until all charges are expended or the master marks another companion in this way.

This item has limited charges and as such is considered a consumable item. Being able to cast spells with a range of Personal at range, even if only for an animal companion or familiar, is a great benefit. It allows the often squishy caster to cast personal spells while still staying at a safe distance.

Lastly, there is the mundane object Familiar Satchel from Ultimate Equipment (page 64). It is designed to protect the smallest companions by providing them with a safe haven.

Familiar Satchel [Price 25 gp]This armored case provides total cover to any Tiny or smaller creature contained within it. It includes air holes (which can be plugged with cork stoppers if you need to go underwater) and two receptacles for food and water.

This gives a player a place to store a Tiny-sized creature while on missions, keeping it safe. The major limitation of this with size; since its maximum creature capacity of Tiny, it can only be used with the smallest of familiars or animal companions.

I hope this article encourages players to delve into Ultimate Equipment in greater detail. Keep exploring!

Season Zero was the playtest season for Paizo’s first organized play campaign. It used the 3.5 rules since the Pathfinder RPG had not been released yet, and scenarios were designed to be completed by four players in a four-hour time slot. This is so far from the reality of the campaign today that many GMs are tempted to ignore Season Zero altogether and stick with the more modern stuff. In this column I hope to show why that would be a mistake.

Season Zero has some gripping stories – world-shaking events, subtle conspiracies, betrayal, and straight-up fights that make great play sessions. Despite being designed for four weaker PCs instead of six stronger ones, because things were new there are still some encounters that are quite challenging in there as well. The scenarios that are just too easy are still useful as training ground for new players, and to fill in some of the important lore and back-story of the Society. There are also some iconic NPCs that your players deserve to get to know.

Some Assembly Required: To run Season Zero scenarios, you need to do two things:

adjust the creatures and mechanics in the game;

deal with the “past-present-future” conflicts in the storyline.

The first of these tasks is very easy. You just have to remember the 3.5 “Spot” and “Listen” skills are now “Perception” in Pathfinder, and you will have to calculate the CMB and CMD for the 3.5 NPCs. Don’t bother going back to recreate the character – in fact, the Guide to Organized Play tells us NOT to update these NPCs to Pathfinder rules, so you have to play them as-is. Just assume that the higher of “Spot” or “Listen” is what their Perception is, figure the CMB if you need it, and go. For creatures without stat blocks in the scenario, you can find the old 3.5 stats here and use those (again, with changes for Perception and CMB/CMD). If the creature has the same CR (Challenge Rating) in both 3.5 and Pathfinder, you may use the Pathfinder version. As always, you should also check the GM Shared Prep resources, as someone may have already done all the work for you.

Mechanically, there are a few other things to watch for. The faction missions no longer grant Prestige, and the Out-of-Tier gold is not pre-calculated in the Chronicle sheet, so you’ll have to alter that. (Refer to the Guide to Organized Play for details.) All of these are very simple adjustments to make, and should in no way prevent you from choosing to run the scenario.

Actually, the biggest difficulty in running Season Zero scenarios today is the inconsistency of the story. When Season Zero was released in 4708-09 AR (2008-09 on Earth), a lot of things were different. Adril Hestram was the main Venture-Captain who sent agents out from the Grand Lodge; Grandmaster Torch was an independent information broker; the Blakros Museum wasn’t nearly as terrifying as its current reputation makes it. In the intervening years of game-time, we have a new group of V-C’s in Absalom, Grandmaster Torch’s story has become more complicated with each passing year, and we’ve gotten to know the Blakros family in great detail. How do you handle this when running Season Zero today?

One idea I have seen suggested is you just tell the players, “This happened in the past, so things are weird.” If your group is willing to go along with it, or isn’t really that into the backstory anyway, this is by far the simplest way to handle it. There’s no point in creating detail your players don’t want. I think, though, there is a better way to handle it that increases verisimilitude without making the GM do a lot of extra prep.

First, figure out whether Grandmaster Torch appears in the scenario you’re running. (If not, your job gets much easier!) This is the single-most complicated issue to handle when running Season Zero. In Season Zero through Two, Grandmaster Torch was an outside information broker. In Season Three, he became head of the new Shadow Lodge faction inside the Society. Later events have him leaving the Society on less-than-friendly terms. To really handle this elegantly, you should talk to any players who were ever members of the Shadow Lodge faction, either with this character or another. (While technically a player’s characters don’t share memories, in this case you’re trying to make things consistent for the player.) Ask her what she knows about Grandmaster Torch, and what she thinks of him, and then base your portrayal on that. This will avoid spoiling future scenarios for the player, while still taking into account whatever that player’s personal history with Torch may be. Whatever you do, DON’T tell them what has “happened” with Torch in the meantime – for that player, it hasn’t happened yet in their personal story!

Next, you need to see if Adril Hestram is the V-C in the scenario. If he is, DO NOT change him, even though technically he no longer works at the Grand Lodge in the current year. He is a key part of the Eyes of the Ten arc, and you want to give your players as much time with him as you can if they plan on playing that series. I go out of my way to run scenarios with Adril in them, just to ensure they know who he is when Eyes starts.

Handling the Blakros Museum is rather easier. Scenario 0-05 Mists of Mwangi takes place at the Museum, and it was written as the first time Pathfinders come into contact with the Museum’s curator, Nigel Aldain. Since then, some of your players may have been in scenarios inside the Museum a half-dozen times, may have befriended Aldain, and may have gotten to know members of the Blakros family personally. I always like to ask players who has been in the Museum before, and which scenarios they’ve played. This lets me play Aldain in a way that matches their previous encounters with him, again without spoiling “past” events which are still “future” events for the players.

Another thing you may want to consider is the use of faction missions. In Season Zero, faction missions were not just a McGuffin hunt, but were a way to give various players some insider information about the scenario. There are some scenarios which depend on that information being available to the players, so make sure you hand out the faction mission slips, even if the players don’t choose to do the mission (since there are no rewards for doing so).

Season Zero takes a little bit of work to run and integrate into a modern PFS group, but the results are worth it. A couple of my top-ten favorite scenarios are from Season Zero, and you really want to run them to give your players a real sense of accomplishment when they take on the Seeker arc at level 12. They tend to run short, so you can even squeeze them in to shorter time slots or spend more time on roleplaying and character development for players that want.

Next week, we`ll look at Season One scenarios, and how to deal with the emergence of those foes-friends-foes, the Shadow Lodge!

A Chronicle of the Pathfinder Society’s exploits during the season from the First of Arodus in the year 4708 (by Absalom Reckoning), through the Thirty-First of Erastus, 4709 A.R., prepared by Thaddeus Lamplighter, Chronicler of the Society, faithful servant of Shelyn, etc. etc.

[This is a player-friendly, spoiler-free summary of the events which occurred during Season Zero, the first season of Pathfinder Society Organized Play Campaign. Blue text like this is out-of-character!]

In the summer of 4708 AR [that’s 2008 on Earth], the Pathfinder Society held its annual Grand Convocation at the Grand Lodge in Absalom, the City at the Center of the World. Hundreds of new agents had recently joined the Society, some graduating from the Grand Lodge’s training program, others earning field commissions through their previous exploits. This influx of new (and untried) agents gave the Society’s leadership, the anonymous Decemvirate, the opportunity to expand the Society’s activities in an unprecedented manner. The Decemvirate expanded cautiously, not pushing the limits of these new agents too hard. [Season Zero uses the 3.5 rules, which basically means they are designed for PCs who are about one level less powerful than the equivalent Pathfinder characters; they were also designed for four-player parties. In general, Season Zero scenarios are easier for the typical 6-person Pathfinder party – although there are exceptions!]

From the Grand Lodge in Absalom, Pathfinders were sent all over the Inner Sea region. Some teams were sent to explore newly-discovered ruins or investigate strange items; others went in aid of members or allies of the Society. Through its actions, the Society gained several new allies, including Skelg the Ripper, an envoy from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, and Nigel Aldain, curator of the (now infamous) Blakros Museum in Absalom. Agents were sent to many of the nations in the Inner Sea, including Taldor, Andoren, Cheliax, and Qadira. Teams were dispatched to locations as far-flung at the lawless River Kingdoms, revolution-wracked Galt, and the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse.

Throughout the year, various national governments saw the Pathfinder Society as a tool to further their own goals, and quietly began to support individual agents within the Society. These national factions garnered much support, and began to co-opt Society missions for their own ends. Pathfinders who once worked as a team instead carried hidden agendas from one of five national factions: the Eagle Knights of Andoran; the nobility of devil-worshiping Cheliax; the Sapphire Sage of Osirion; the merchants of Qadira; or the nobles of Taldor. While not leading to outright conflict between members, these factions often distracted Pathfinders from the Society’s goals. [During Season Zero, faction missions awarded prestige; there were no prestige awards for actually doing the mission assigned by the Venture-Captain. This put an undue emphasis on faction missions which no longer exists today.]

By the end of the season, the Decemvirate had tested their crop of new agents, weeding out those unable to handle the duties of a Pathfinder. The Society’s masked leaders had also noted the increase in nationalism among the Society’s members. Rather than clamp down on the national influences, the Society embraced them, and Pathfinders began overtly assisting various nations as troubleshooters and investigators, alongside their normal duty of exploration. But there were some in the Society who saw this rise of nationalism as an ill omen, and yet others who saw it as an opportunity to strike.

[The companion to this article, “Season Zero for GMs”, describes ways for GMs to run these scenarios in the present, taking into account all of the history that has occurred between 4708 and the current year of 4714.]

Your job as a GM for a Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenario is not only to provide a challenge for your players, but to make sure they are having fun. Don’t be that guy – the killer GM. This doesn’t mean pulling punches. What it means is using good GM tools: prepping the scenario, following tactics, and reading the table. Providing a fun game for you and the players is a lot more rewarding than racking up a body count.

Prepping the Scenario and Following Tactics

To create a fair challenge for the players, when you prep the scenario make sure you are familiar with the tactics as presented. Look up feats, spells, special abilities, and special attacks that are listed in the tactics. Be familiar with gear and other abilities just in case the players make choices that the tactics don’t work for. This will let you make smart choices that provide a challenge. Now, an encounter might provide things that are more deadly than the tactics suggest. For example, tactics for a BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy – boss) spell caster might be to use ranged tactics while minions engage the PCs in melee, even though the BBEG has deadly touch spells prepared. Don’t be tempted to rush in, wait till a character approaches, as scenario tactics are written this way for a reason. A deadly tactic could end the encounter for that player early. It’s more fun for a player to have a deadly tactic as a climax rather than as the first thing that happens in an encounter. As it says on p.34 of the Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized play, “…consider the experience of the player when deciding whether to use especially lethal tactics or if a character is in extreme danger of death”. It’s good to provide the threat of death in a game, it’s bad to make that your goal as a GM. No matter what tactics say in a scenario, remember your goal: to provide a fun experience for the players as well as yourself.

Reading the Table

A great tool for providing a fun experience is knowing how to read your table. When running for a table, be aware of players reactions and their body language. Smiles, leaning forward, laughing, those are signs of a fun session. If your GM style is causing them to cross their arms, groan in misery, or get distracted something needs to change. Everyone at the table should be having fun, not just the GM. The best GMs will have the table enjoying themselves and laughing as he kills the entire party.

However, if the players are bored as they stomp through the scenario, don’t be afraid to improve your tactics. As PFS GMs we are supposed to follow the tactics as written in the scenario but as it says on p. 32 of the Guide to Organized play, tactics should only be changed if they “…provide a more enjoyable play experience”. The only way to know if the changes you make are fun is by reading your table. Also, be aware of the players’ and your state of being. At a night game, con, or marathon game day players and you may be exhausted, and not be fully focused. Don’t expect players to bring their “A” game all the time. They have lives outside of gaming and aren’t necessarily 100% present at the table. This should never be held against them. Facilitating a good game means running the game with your players, not against them. A challenging GM runs the game with, a killer GM runs against.

Another trap of a killer GM is picking on “noobs”. New players need guidance from the judge and the other players. Remember, they are the future of the game. Without new players we won’t have games to play. Recognize any confusion from a player and help them, give them longer to think and encourage them to suggest what they would do even if they don’t understand the rule. It is perfectly okay to reward a creative solution even if mechanics don’t 100% support it; find a way to make it work. If a new player makes a decision that could get their character killed, warn them. For example, actions that would provoke an attack of opportunity; remind them when they will provoke. If they still want to take the action, let them, but don’t punish them for taking actions they don’t understand the consequences of. Too many killer GMs try to teach new players through trial and error. People new to the game will have a lot more fun if they are guided through the rules rather than having them held over their heads.

Being a challenging GM requires work. You will have to prep harder, be present at your table and read your players. The effort is worth it, as it will reward you with a more fun experience as a GM and players will want to play at your table. Don’t forget, even though you are the judge, you are playing the game too. Smile and have fun and so will your players.

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